by Alec Clayton
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Playback Theatre. Olympia’s own Playback Theatre, Heartsparkle Players, will mark the anniversary with a performance in November, followed by another performance in January, celebrating their own 35th year of the Heartsparkle Players. Both will take place at Traditions Fair Trade’s Soul Café, according to Debe Edden, Artistic and Managing Director and founding member of the Heartsparkle Players.
According to Edden, Playback as a theatrical event is different from traditional theatre in that In a playback event, someone in the audience tells a moment or story from their life, chooses the actors to play the different roles, and then all those present watch the enactment, as the story “comes to life with artistic shape and nuance. Actors draw on non-naturalistic styles to convey meaning, such as metaphor or song.”
The Playback form involves improvisational theatre, storytelling, and psychodrama as someone in the audience tells a story from their life and the actors play back the stories. Stories from the audience are played back — thus the name —by actors and sometimes musicians and a conductor, who talks to the audience as a kind of guide or narrator.
Playback was created by Jo Salas, Jonathan Fox and the original Playback Theatre company in New Paltz, NY in 1975. Since that time it has spread across the Americas and Europe. Playback companies now exist on six continents. Playback Theatre is used in a broad range of settings: theatres and community centers , in schools, private sector organizations, nonprofit organizations, prisons, hospice centers, day treatment centers, at conferences of all kinds, and colleges and universities.
Heartsparkle Players began doing Playback Theatre in 1991 as a way to support elementary school children in developing empathy and reducing Bullying. Students told stories about when they received and gave acts of kindness. In the beginning, they performed primarily in schools and later began to do commissioned performances for organizations, faith groups and finally they added public performances. They have held their public performances at Traditions for 28 years, often collaborating with other community groups. Edden said, “They want to bring hope, stories and community to their gatherings. A few of the many groups they have collaborated with are: GRUB, The Dispute Resolution Center, Planned Parenthood Teen Council, Tenino Young at Heart Theater and Camp Quixote.
Playback practitioners have used the method in schools on issues such as bullying (students tell stories about their experiences in relation to bullying, watch them played back, and then explore ways to create a respectful and safe school environment). Playback is used both by classroom teachers and by visiting performers/leaders.[12]
Playback Theatre is used to provide a forum for the exchange of diverse experiences in such contexts as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations examining on racial conflict and reconciliation; and playing for incarcerated men and women; immigrant and refugee organizations and their host communities.
The March performance is celebrating 25 years of co-creating with the Thunders. The Thunders are performers who are on the disability spectrum. They began conducting workshops and creating a Playback community at the request of Griselda and Robert Peretz-Rosales for their son, Simone Peretz-Rosales.
Photos courtesy of Heartsparkle Players.
WHAT:
Legacy – Celebrating 50 years of Playback Theatre in collaboration with Window Seat Media, a community oral history organization that partners with communities to document and share their own histories and stories.
WHEN:
6:30 p.m., Friday, Nov, 14
WHERE:
Soul Cafe at Traditions,- 300 5th Ave. SW, Olympia
COST:
Donation, $10-20 (no one turned away)
WHAT:
Stories That Shaped Us – Celebrating 35 years of the Heartsparkle Players Playback Ensemble
WHEN:
6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9
WHERE:
Soul Cafe at Traditions, 300 5th Ave. SW, Olympia